More Swiss leave Wuhan

A woman wears a protective face mask near the Eiffel Tower, in Paris, earlier this month Keystone / Ian Langsdon

A further five Swiss citizens and two of their Chinese relatives have been flown out of the Chinese region around Wuhan, the hub of the coronavirus outbreak, on a flight organized by France, Swiss public television SRF has reported.

According to the Swiss embassy in China, the group is on its way to Paris.

The departure was confirmedExternal link by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign AffairsExternal link (FDFA) on Friday morning. It is organising their return, via its Crisis Management Centre.

The embassy External linkdid not say if there were still other Swiss left in the region,SRF said.External link

The group does not have to go into a 14-day quarantine in France, as was the case for a previous group of Swiss and their families, who have since returned to Switzerland. 

+ Swiss return from coronavirus quarantine in France

The passengers will be picked up in Paris and returned to directly to Switzerland, where they will sit out a 14-day quarantine.

There are a total of 60 Europeans on board the flight, which has been chartered for the purpose of bringing extra medical equipment to Hubei.

In China there have now been more than 75,000 cases of coronavirus infection, with official figures putting the number of deaths at 2,236. Outside China, there have now been around 1,200 infections and 11 deaths in 27 countries. There are no cases in Switzerland, but Swiss have been affected by quarantine measures.

On Thursday two Swiss passengers were allowed to leave the cruise liner Diamond Princess, moored off the shore of Japan.